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A nice hotel, but be aware of the location!

I stayed at this hotel in February 2011 for work; I was attending a conference at the ICC in Birmingham and had this hotel booked for me. There were a number of us travelling up from Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire and we were all booked into the Jury's Inn hotel.

We had a fairly traumatic journey, as Birmingham city centre is a bit of a nightmare to navigate around. Even with the sat nav, we still managed to get lost several times before finally finding the hotel. Upon finding the hotel, the next difficulty came when we tried to find somewhere to park. We eventually came across the car park that is slightly behind the hotel and is payable separately.

Once parked, we made our way into the hotel and were all pleasantly surprised. I worked for a regional charity at the time, and 'posh hotels' were not normally within our price range! The reception area was very bright, open and welcoming - it looked more like a 4/5* hotel - needless to say, we were thrilled. The reception area is at the front of the hotel and raised up, easily accessed by going up a few steps (although I'm not sure what I would have done if I had been travelling with someone in a wheelchair!). I found the reception staff to be fairly friendly and helpful and we were soon all sent off to our various rooms. One thing I found a little odd was that there were about 10 of us, booked as a group booking, but all of our rooms were on different floors. It didn't really bother me, I just thought it was a bit of a strange thing to do!

So, I got the lift up to my room on the 9th floor. Unfortunately, the rest of the hotel isn't as plush as the reception area, but it was perfectly adequate. My room was pretty large (it was only me), with 2 double beds, a desk and chair, wardrobe and plenty of space inbetween! The bathroom was average, but I guess it was as expected for a 3* hotel in a city centre.

We were due to meet downstairs to go back to the ICC for a dinner in a couple of hours, so I unpacked a little and started to get ready. There were tea and coffee making facilities (a godsend), so I put the TV on and relaxed. I had a shower and was a little disappointed to find that they don't seem to do the little toiletries anymore. They have the shampoo and shower gel in dispensers on the wall in the shower - I guess they were losing money by providing them, and I've known plenty of other hotels to do this now (a shame though as I loved the little ones). The shower was absolutely fine and within a couple of hours, I was back down in reception to meet my colleagues.

The hotel is really well situated for a trip to the ICC, it is only about 10 minutes walk. This walk will take you right by the canal, which is surrounded by bars and restaurants and really looks like a nice area. Unfortunately, the walk back to the hotel after the dinner was not so impressive. The road that the Jury's Inn is on is a little scary to say the least! It's full of rowdy bars and even a couple of strip clubs (with one of these being right beside the hotel). This wouldn't normally bother me that much, but you really couldn't avoid it. I was walking back with a much older colleague and we were constantly being harassed into going into one of the bars - which we CLEARLY weren't going to do. Once back in the hotel, I quickly got in the lift and hurried back to the safety of my bedroom. The bed was fairly comfy and I managed to get a good night's sleep - luckily I wasn't near the main road to be able to hear any of the noise, but I'm not sure if all rooms were this quiet.

The following day, we met up for breakfast. This was included in our room rate and I was certainly grateful for this! The restaurant area was not far from reception and, again, was very bright and open. There was a lot of choice for breakfast, including your traditional fry up, pasties, toast and condiments and fruit. There was tea and coffee available as well as a selection of fruit juices. Everything I tried (which I think was pretty much everything), was really tasty!

I asked colleagues how they found it and everyone seemed to have nothing but praise for the hotel, although it seems that some had rooms with 2 double beds and some had rooms with 1 double bed - although we had all booked and paid for the same.

I have had a look on the Jury's Inn website and you can get a room from around £60 per night, this is fairly good value for a city centre hotel.

Overall, I would recommend this hotel. It was perfectly located for the ICC, but I certainly wouldn't feel comfortable coming here if I had a young family as it isn't in the safest location. The rooms were large and adequate for a 3* hotel, and the breakfast was really nice with a large selection. I am giving this hotel 3stars (with a couple taken off for the slightly dodgy location).

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Better to be had in Birmingham

The Jury Inn is indeed located in the heart of Birmingham close to the shopping area and even closer to the heart of pub and club land. We stayed for two nights last weekend, arriving on the friday late afternoon and leaving after breakfast on the sunday, we paid a bed and breakfast rate of £81 a night. I had high hopes for this hotel as teh pictures online look rather plush for this 3 star hotel. We went to Birmingham to watch our son perform with the National Children's orchestra hence the start of the problem. When we booked the hotel trying to get the reservations line to understand that on the first night we would have two adults and a young baby staying but on the second night we would have two adults, one 13 year old and a young baby in the room. We had to fight to even book a room as they were insistant that we should have two rooms. We eventually managed to book a room and all was fine.

We arrived in Birmingham late afternoon on the friday after a horrific journey up and our baby daughter was on the verge of meltdown mode, she wanted nothing more than feeding, a nice bath and a comfy bed. We parked the car and followed the directions into the hotel, it seemed like we had been directed to use the Tradesmans entrance as we came in through a back door which is where the directional signs seemed to vanish.

We found our way to reception which made us smile as the reception area was huge, light, airy and rather posh looking. we walked across the area towards the desk which is situated up four stairs. Our daughter was in her big silver cross pram and there was no way I was lifting that up four steps so I looked to the side expecting to see a ramp as the desk was a good 10-12 foot away. No ramp which took me by suprise how were disabled guests meant to approach the counter. I looked over to reception and all four receptionists suddenly became busy looking at their computer screens, were they indeed expecting me to ask for help. I looked at hubby and shrugged, dumped the cases and pram at the bottom of the steps and proceeded up towards the desk. The receptionist was frosty to say the least no smile and friendly greeting, no welcome to the Jury inn. Nothing.

I started to book in and my daughter started to scream, I asked the receptionist if she could hold on while I popped dummy into calm her down, I was gone a few minutes as my daughter was past dummy stage and heading for the full screaming fit, when I looked over the receptionist grinned and called over "when your ready"

We booked in which seemed to take forever, she told us our room was on the 12th floor and pointed behind us with a casual "take a lift. " comment. We took the lift up to the 12th floor and found our room. It had a small bathroom with a shower screen over a low level bath, plus toilet. I must say our bathroom wasnt the cleanest with water and soap marks all down the bath panel. I am not sure whether the dark green colour panel helped to highlight them but if I could see it surely housekeeping could too. They suplied shower gel, shampoo and hand wash in large communal bottle that were bolted to the wall, no free little bottles to take home then. (yes my husband is one of those, he only does the shower gel never a towel )

The room was okay size wise with two double beds, a TV and coffee and tea making facilities. Beds were made with sheets and blankets, four pillows supplied with one extra in the wardrobe. Three towels supplied however these were no bigger than a hand towel, not enough to cover anything that needed covering when you hoped out the shower.

When we walked into the room we noticed how cold it seemed so immediately popped up the heating from 20 to 24, however this made absolutely no difference to the heating at all and we all just agreed to make do as we couldnt be bothered to call down to reception.

We sorted out my daughter and popped her in a babygrow and in her pram so she could sleep while we went down for dinner, the idea being we could eat with her alongside in the comfort of her pram as she is too young to join us in a high chair. We had been told the restaurant opened at 6pm so made sure we were downstairs spot on six, as we walked towards the restaurant a member of staff called over they dont open till 6.30pm. We hung around for the half an hour and were then seated. The menu was fairly basic with soup, bruschetta, salad for starters followed by the likes of pasta, lasagna and fish and chips as the main course.

My husband ordered tomato and olive bruchetta for starter which was marked with a V on the menu and I decided on the vegetable and Mushroom soup. (are mushrooms not a vegetable these days) I was shocked by the prices with my half a bowl of soup costing £5.05 but after the hideous journey we just wanted to eat.

The starter came and both my husband and I raised our eyebrows and gave each other that silent marital look that says eating out may have been a better plan. The tomato and olive bruschetta looked nothing more than mushed up mushrooms on toast, I couldnt see a single sign of a tomato on the plate. My half a bowl of soup came with two part baked rolls that seemed to have missed the oven as they were pale and stone cold. The soup was actually quite edible but the shock came when my husband went to eat his last piece of bruschetta, as he lifted it he found underneath a dried up peice of chicken. We did call over the waitress to be told in very poor english "I take off your coffee then you be happy"

At this point we were in two minds whether to pop next door for a kebab. The main courses came out very fast after starters and hubby had ordered the pasta with bacon, one word springs to mind and its Batchelors. I had ordered the fish and chips and minted peas. It stated that it came with tartare sauce, now this was my mistake I didnt ask for no tartare sauce but I wrongly assumed most places put it in a bowl on the side. Not here it came as a huge puddle under my fish, chips and minted peas, I ate what I could but to be honest I have never seen that amount of tartare sauce on a single plate. The peas were stone cold which I did ask about but the waitress didnt seem to understand cold peas so I gave up. The fish was very watery and the chips lukewarm so I resigned myself to look forward to puddings instead. Why do I never learn my lesson and quit while I'm ahead. We didnt end up with pudding as the choices were limited to three one of them being fruit salad and it just didnt grab my taste buds.

My daughter and I left for the 12th floor and hubby left for sainsburys across the road in search of a sweet treat to finish his meal.

The first night in the hotel was freezing and the double glazing in the hotel failed as the draft from the windows would have blown out candles on a birthday cake. we pulled across the curtains and did our best to tuck them in to prevent the draft.

The next morning we all overslept and rather than being the first down to breakfast we arrived an hour before breakfast was due to finish. Quantity of breakfast I could not fault with cereal, pastries, full fried and fruit bar being on offer, you were just waiting for this weren't you BUT the full english was cold the hot bar wasnt hot at all. The scrambed eggs swam around in the tray of water so I had opted for a fried rubber ball, opps sorry I meant egg. It was so well cooked the yolk had turned grey.

I decided fruit to be the best option and looking at the list on the table which said grapes, melon and apples were available I decided to get grapes and melon. I picked my melon and looked for the grapes, silly me the grapes were in a huge bowl of fruit salad with the apple and more melon, choosing not to fish each one out like my son would I stayed with the melon.

I heard one lady tell a member of restuarant staff that the juice machine had run out of orange juice to be told once it runs out thats it, have apple or water.

That night after the concert we arrived back at the hotel at 9.45pm after having to walk a 13 year old past the gentlemans club next door and various other night clubs, pubs and over 18 establishments we were pleased to arrive back at the hotel. we went straight up to our room where our son asked for another pillow, we called down to reception and were told they would send one up. Well to cut a long story short the pillow took 63 minutes to arrive and that was after several calls to reception to chase it. I would have been quicker to pluck a duck myself and make my own pillow.

The hotel on the saturday night was like staying in a youth hostel with people messing in the lifts and running up and door the corridors screaming. The street noise outside was so loud even on the 12th floor it was like the people were in our room. no checks were done on the lifts to stop people messing with them.

Breakfast the next morning was the same even at the start of service all stuff was still cold and the restuarant wasnt even busy so there was no excuse for it.

We booked out and raised the points with reception to be told email in and we'll give you one days parking free which is a total of £13. I also questioned the fact the room is able to sleep four yet tea cups supplied two, tea bags supplied two. Free biscuits as most hotels supplied none. My cookie monster hubby was not amused.

All in all if you want somewhere cetral with a bed the Jury inn maybe for you, if you want some comfort and a home from home experience go elsewhere. if you do book the Jury inn take a jumper or your long johns as the rooms are freezing.